blauslc92
02-11-2008, 09:50 PM
All,
Glad I found a good technical forum on these cars! Seems like everyone here is generous and really takes pride in helping others out. Please excuse my ignorance, my experience is only with European cars, mostly VW and Bmw.
Background:
My girlfriend has an 03 Grand Am, 3400 V6 with approx 78K mi. Recently I noticed the classic sounds of hydraulic lifter tapping. It does it when cold and then goes away. I realize this is a fairly "minor" problem, and should not be a threat immediately. However, doing some reading on here I ran across the "LIM" or Lower Intake Manifold problem.
Problem:
I decided to inspect it closer to see of any telltale leakage signs. Well, I could not find any signs of coolant leaking from around the manifold area. I looked into the coolant reservoir and to my dismay found lots of oil residue/sludge in it! I checked the oil dipstick and it seems ok, not foamy like it gets when mixed with water.
Questions:
Could this still be a LIM problem? OR is it more likely to be headgasket? How do I know which LIM her car has? Was it revised at some point to prevent gasket leak?
At the moment the cars seems to run ok, water temp hits almost 200 in traffic-is this ok? Please advise, thanks everyone!
Glad I found a good technical forum on these cars! Seems like everyone here is generous and really takes pride in helping others out. Please excuse my ignorance, my experience is only with European cars, mostly VW and Bmw.
Background:
My girlfriend has an 03 Grand Am, 3400 V6 with approx 78K mi. Recently I noticed the classic sounds of hydraulic lifter tapping. It does it when cold and then goes away. I realize this is a fairly "minor" problem, and should not be a threat immediately. However, doing some reading on here I ran across the "LIM" or Lower Intake Manifold problem.
Problem:
I decided to inspect it closer to see of any telltale leakage signs. Well, I could not find any signs of coolant leaking from around the manifold area. I looked into the coolant reservoir and to my dismay found lots of oil residue/sludge in it! I checked the oil dipstick and it seems ok, not foamy like it gets when mixed with water.
Questions:
Could this still be a LIM problem? OR is it more likely to be headgasket? How do I know which LIM her car has? Was it revised at some point to prevent gasket leak?
At the moment the cars seems to run ok, water temp hits almost 200 in traffic-is this ok? Please advise, thanks everyone!